Today I...July 30th

Today I...

...am finally back with a new post and a new picture from my Sweetheart and I's vacation in Los Angeles. The photo is of the terrace at L.A.'s Our Lady of Angels Cathedral.

...have had a very busy week. Wednesday I went out with my Sweetheart after work, Thursday I went out with V after work and Last night I went out to dinner with my Family after work. Phew...I would love to be able to just crash for a while, but tonight I am going out to dinner at a friend's place and tomorrow I'm going out with my Sweetheart...at some point. I'm not sure when exactly, but I'm going to try and make sure we lay low!

...went out to make the first of my visits to V's cat. She and her boyfriend have gone to his family's place in northern Quebec for a week and I will be looking after Pitka until Thursday when V's sister will take over until Sunday.

...am getting close to being done reading Edward Rutherfurd's 'London'. I am into the 1750s now and am beginning to wonder how on earth I will find anything as fascinating to read after finishing this book! Maybe I should start hunting...

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch features are these two photos I took in Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles, or Entertainment District in English, which is currently undergoing a major face-lift. It houses a large portion of Montreal's Concert halls, including La Place des Arts, home to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and l'Opéra de Montréal. Check it out if you're in town, there's almost always something going on in the area...but take the Metro to get there until the construction in the area is done or you will not have nearly as much fun.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can visit the Skywatch Friday blog.

Today I...July 26th

Today I...

...had a very busy day at work phone-wise.

...developed a migraine around lunchtime which kept getting worse even after I took a very strong dose a caffeine laced Tylenol to get rid of it.

...threw in the towel and left work at about 2:00 P.M.

...went to bed immediately when I got home and slept for an hour and a half and thankfully when I woke up, my migraine was gone.

...made myself some vegetable rice for dinner and it turned out quite well, even though I deviated quite a ways off from the recipe!

...was very happy to hear more news about my cousin's new baby :o)

...am very eager to see my Sweetheart tomorrow

Today I...July 25th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of the group of children who were playing in on of the Festival Plaza fountains. Throughout most of the year, the entire plaza is filled with fountains, but during June and July most of them are turned off to accommodate the series of Festivals that are held there. Right now they are setting up the Just for Laughs festival.

...was absolutely thrilled to learn of the birth of my cousin E's and her husband's first baby, a boy :o) I can't to meet him, I'll try and make it to Toronto for that within a month or so.

...finally accepted the fact that I have hay fever and not a cold. I came to this conclusion after realizing that my symptoms were not getting any better, they were actually getting worse. I therefore headed to the pharmacy during my lunch hour and bought some 24 hour Aerius and wow...what a difference! My symptoms are not completely gone, but they are much, much better than they were.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for over a half hour :o) We decided that we are going to go and see the fireworks on Wednesday and my Sweetheart said that he would find us the perfect place to watch them from :o)

Today I...July 24th

Today I...

...am going to keep this short and sweet, as I am feeling a bit tired.

...spent the day with my friend G. We went to wander around the African festival. it was quite a bit smaller than we thought it would be.

...talked a lot!

...went to Juliette et Chocolat and then walked to Chinatown.

..took pictures, which I will share during the week once I have them on my PC.

...am dying to have a shower to wash off the sunscreen I put on this afternoon before going out. Sunscreen is necessary, I know, but I really hate how sticky and greasy it feels!

...am thinking more and more that this is a cold that I have.

Today I...July 23rd

Today I...

...am sharing two of the series of pictures that I took at the Oratory yesterday with you. As promised, there is one of the banner of Saint Brother André that has been put up above the main outer doors to the Basilica. I'm not sure that I like the banner, I find that it is not fancy enough to be up there with the Corinthian Columns and neo-classical facade. The other photo is from the Oratory's Stations of the Cross Gardens.

...went out for brunch with my Sweetheart :o) We then went for a walk with stops at the Museum of Fine Arts new Napoleon 1st exhibit and the Simon's department store.

...clipped my cats' claws, which is always an interesting experience.

...opened all my windows when I felt that wind turn to the North. They are saying that the heatwave is finally going break tonight with a low of 18 Celsius, hooray!

...am wondering whether I have a cold or Hay Fever. Time will tell!

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch features have a water theme as you can see. The top one is from Kelowna, British Columbia, the center photo is from Naples, Florida...

...and this last one is from Toronto, Ontario.

The theme of this Skywatch post is...cooling off! Wherever you are this weekend, if you are being affected by this huge heat wave drink lots of water and stay as cool as you can!

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, visit the Skywatch Friday blog.

Today I...July 20th

Today I...

...am a PMS mess. My PMS symptoms vary every month. Last month, I was a grouchy, irritable monster. This month, I am sad, weepy and depressed and very sensitive to any situation which can make me feel abandoned, neglected or left out and those are just my emotional symptoms, but they are the ones that are the most bothersome though. Pimples I can hide and treat very easily, insomnia I can deal with too and if my hair looks like crap, I can usually do something with it so that it won't look quite so bad, but there is no easy fix for the few days of emotional Hell I go through every month. It is much better than it used to be, but I still wish I could find something that would make the problem non-existent.

...ended up not taking my camera to work to take a picture of Brother Andre's banner because there was still scaffolding up behind it and a security fence in front of it. I'll give it a go on Friday when the fence and scaffolding will be gone and the weather will be nice as tomorrow they're announcing storms.

...spoke with my Sweetheart. He had a bit of a rough day at work since he and his colleague went to take a look at a crooked ceramic floor in a luxury home in hope of being able to fix it, but couldn't prove their theory as to why the floor was crooked (meaning warped). Tomorrow they and another engineer are going to inspect a small dam north of Montreal...at 6:00 A.M.. Why so early? Because it is a 10 hour job at least and it's supposed to go up to 36 degrees here tomorrow. Ugh...I don't envy the poor guys that job.

Today I...July 19th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of the lovely fountain in the gardens of Casa Loma, in Toronto, with you. I sure wish I had a fountain like that in the courtyard of my apartment building, because I tell you, I would jump right into it if I could. But instead, I broke down when I got home from work and turned on my AC which has been running since about 5:00 P.M. It has successfully sucked the humidity out of pretty much my entire apartment and I will keep my windows closed until further notice since there will not be an overnight low under 20 degrees until at least Sunday. I have a very high tolerance for heat and humidity, but combine a stubborn heat wave with PMS which make me irritable and sensitive to temperatures either hot or cold and I feel like moving to Iqaluit just so I can get a decent night's sleep!

...was impressed by the size of the huge banner with Brother Andre's image on it that was put up above the main outer doors of the Basilica today. I will bring my camera to work tomorrow to take some pictures of it.

...am wondering why my Sweetheart bother to connect to Skype if he is just going to be 'Away' the entire time...two nights in a row. I guess I'll write him an e-mail instead of talking to him and hopefully he will answer me tomorrow. I got a brief e-mail from him today, so my odds are good.

Today I...July 18th

Today I...

...had a nice, quiet day at work. I was alone in office since Monday is D's day off and C worked yesterday so took today off. I was able to put my favorite radio station on and turn off the AC so I wouldn't freeze. Ah, bliss :o)

...found myself dreaming about getting away on vacation. Not surprising since nearly half the Oratory's full time employees are on vacation right now.

...am sharing this video of PEI with you as that is where I am dreaming of getting away to, with my Sweetheart of course. I went to PEI once with my family when I was in my early teens and I absolutely fell in love with it and did not want to leave. I would actually move there if I could, I think! If you have never been to PEI, go there. Just trust me on this one, you will not be sorry. As for me, I'm hoping to go there next year with my Sweetheart :o)

Today I...July 17th

Today I...

...went to the beach with two friends of mine. Not this beach, though. This is a beach in Kelowna, BC on the shores of Okanagan Lake. The beach I went to today was in a town called Ste-Catherine on the South Shore of Montreal near the Lachine rapids. It was on an artificial lake, but the water was nice and refreshing and it was not too crowded. We spent about three hours there before my friends dropped me back off at Longueuil Metro, Montreal's South Shore Metro station and I came home.

...woke up quite rested after sleeping ten hours.

...got my grocery shopping done before noon while it was still warm but not hot.

...am quite enjoying the cool breeze coming through my living room windows as a cold front moves through.

Today I...July 16th

Today I...

...am dropping in just to let you know that I am still around :o) I got caught up on the phone most of the evening on Thursday after making a run into town after work to pick up some sheet music for my next choir season. By the time I was done on the phone, it was nearly 11:00 P.M. and I was longer in the mood to write up a blog post. Then yesterday my Sweetheart came over after I was done work and stayed over before leaving on a weekend camping trip. So yeah, blogging was the last thing on my mind. Oh and my Sweetheart? He make chocolate truffles just for me, milk chocolate and honey truffles, no less. Sorry ladies, he's mine and you're not getting anywhere near him :o)

...am heading out to the West Island for a spa appointment and a bit of shopping and then am more than likely going out with some friends this evening, which is why I am posting this now. I'll try and come back for another post tomorrow, but I'm planning on going to the beach with the same friends since it's going to be quite hot, so I'll see if I make it here or not.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend :o)

Today I...July 13th

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of the hills in Griffith Park in Los Angeles with you.

...was very impressed when I woke up this morning with the blankets still on me after sleeping right through the night thanks to the weather gradually cooling off. Phew! I was able to leave all the windows open this morning to air out my apartment and get rid of the humidity, hooray!

...had a nice long chat with my Sweetheart and it felt wonderful. We planned on getting tomorrow, but then he called back and told me that he had been summoned to a get together for his brother's wedding anniversary. He hadn't even know that it was his brother's anniversary tomorrow, it had completely slipped his mind. Oh well, we're going to get together on Friday instead and then he is going off camping for the weekend with some of his old friends from when he lived in France on exchange before we met back in 2004.

Today I...July 12th

Today I...

...am sharing these two photos of Quinn with you. For those of you who are new followers to my blog, since I have happily acquired a few new followers lately, she is Magique's mother. And of course, every time I post a photo of little miss Magique, I post a photo of her charming mother the next day :o) In these two photos she is lying in the kitchen window soaking up the sun :o)

...still have not seen my Sweetheart *sigh*. I'm trying very hard to stay patient, but it's getting difficult. I'm debating writing to him tonight or not, but I'll see. I'll keep thinking about it and decide later on.

...am beginning to hope that this hot weather breaks soon. It's been quite hot and steamy since Sunday and I'm getting tired of sleeping on top of my blankets, which is the only way that I can get any sleep when it gets this hot.

...am going to keep this short today as I have P on the phone.

Today I...July 11th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of little miss Magique with you. Why? Because she was being very Magique-like this evening, meaning a four-legged terror. She was consistently trying to get into places she was not supposed to be, like the hall closet and, Heaven help me, the pantry. Why these two places? Because the pantry is where the plastic bags I use for cleaning the litter box used to be and the hall closet is where they are now and have been for months. Magique is fascinated by plastic bags, they hold more interest for her than catnip and even food!!! Why this is, I have no clue. My first cat, Cinnamon, was also a plastic bag fetishist, but to a more healthy extent. Nothing was more interesting to him than his food, which is the normal feline state of mind. But Magique? Yeah, she's Magique...in a league all her own which every once in a while gets her collared and locked in the bedroom until she forgets that she was doing whatever got her collared in the first place, which is generally trying to get where the plastic bags are. Heaven help me...

...do not have a whole lot more to report. Work was quiet, the weather was lovely, I am still waiting to see my Sweetheart (the family that was visiting from Poland for the Christening is leaving tomorrow, so hopefully it will my turn to get his undivided attention now) and I watched a movie the evening. Tah dah, that was my day :o) See you all tomorrow...unless I am the object of my Sweetheart's undivided attention :o)

Today I...July 10th

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of U2's stage with you. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you'll be able to see it quite clearly, it's the bright blue structure in the center a bit to the right. To gue you an idea of how huge that thing is: the concert was about 5-6 kilometers away from the Oratory, which is where I took this picture from.

...had a nice, quiet day at home, or mostly at home. I went out around 2:30 P.M. to get some supplements and an ice cream in Monkland Village, which was about a half hour of walking around. 10 minutes there, 10 minutes back and 10 minutes in the village, which made for a nice little outing.

...read my book when I got home. I'm still reading 'London' by Edward Rutherfurd and will be for a while yet, it's an amazing read though, I will miss it when I'm done!

...went out for dinner in the West Island with my mom and my brother. It was a nice surprise as I wasn't expecting to see my mom today at all, but we were talking on the phone and I told her that my brother and I were thinking of going out for dinner and she wanted to join in. She brought me a lovely sweater she knit me, I was so happy to see the finished product! I am quite looking forward to being able to show it off and tell everyone that my mom made it for me!

Today I...July 9th

Today I...

...spoke to a much more alert Sweetheart :o)

...spent then afternoon with P and A.

...managed to get all my cleaning done this morning and then my laundry this evening.

...headed up to the Oratory to see and hear U2 from there. That worked out brilliantly and I am now hearing them just as well from my living room. They sang 'Where the Streets Have No Name' a few minutes ago and now they're singing 'Ultraviolet'. Bono sounds awesome!!! I'm getting my free concert after all :o) It's not quite as good as actually being there, but almost!

...got some new fish for my tank, Gouramis! I love them! I got two Honey Gouramis (yellow) and two Red Gouramis (red and yellow). I hope they do well!

They're singing 'With or Without You' now! Oh, oh , oh! lol

Today I...July 8th

Today I...

...am sharing these picture of some of the yummy food the caterer served up at my Grandmother's 80th birthday party last week.

...had another relatively quiet day at work.

...spoke with my Sweetheart after work, much to my delight. I actually called him twice, once to tell him that my brother had two free tickets to the U2 concert tonight. I hung up with him to find out how I could pick up the tickets from his friend who was already waiting to get into the concert, but he told me that his friend had already given the tickets to someone on the concert site. UGH!!! I was soooo disappointed!!! Not only did I spend 10 lovely minutes thinking that I was going to get to see U2 after all, but I was downright euphoric at the idea of seeing them with my Sweetheart. My brother said that he would try and see if he could find us something else for tomorrow night's concert, but I'm not too hopeful because pretty everything that is available is an inhumane price. The one's for tonight were freebie because my brother's friend had bought them to sell them, but wasn't able to get rid of them before the show. Also, my Sweetheart's niece is being Christened on Sunday and they are getting things ready for the Christening tomorrow so the odds of him being free in the evening are minimal. Oh yeah, he's also jet lagged out of his brain. When I called him this evening at 5:45, he was half asleep. Poor Sweetheart, I just hope he woke up to eat though, otherwise he's never going to get rid of the jet lag!

...will be seeing P and A tomorrow, hooray!

...am looking forward to speaking with my Sweetheart again on Monday and hopefully seeing him at that point!

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch features are these three different view of the sculpture that adorns the staircase that leads to the main building of Los Angeles' Getty Center.

Isn't is fascinating how different one statue can loos depending on what angle you see it from?

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can visit the Skywatch Friday blog.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and thanks for stopping by :o)

Today I...July 5th

Today I...

...am sharing another picture I took at the Getty Center during my visit there while I was in L.A. with my Sweetheart in may.

...am getting more and more cheerful as my Sweetheart's return from Europe gets closer. He will be back in under 48 hours now!!!

...gave a tour to a a gaggle of coworkers so we could test out some audio-guides. The concept behind them is that I, or another tour guide, would wear a microphone to give the tour that would be plugged into a small transmission pack and the people following the tour would wear receiver packs and headphones. This would make tour groups more discreet inside the Oratory and also spare our voices, which would be a major benefit for me as less strain on my voice due to tours would improve my vocal strength for singing! We don't know if we're going to keep the audio guides yet. For now we only have 15 of them for testing purposes. We still have to evaluate costs and weigh them against the benefits of having them.

Today I...July 4th

Today I...

...am sharing this perhaps seemingly unremarkable photo of some flowers for my grandmother (bouquets on the right and far left) and aunt (bouquet in the middle with the red flowers) that were given to them by my father at our get-together for my grandmother's birthday on Sunday.

...am admitting that I have been keeping very close tabs on Prince William and Kate's tour on Canada and have been loving every minute of it. They are truly an amazing young couple. But I have come up with one question though: what in Heaven's name do they do with all the flowers that Kate gets??? There is no way she keeps them all, so where do they all go? I'm sure that a few of them end up in the plane to make it more cheerful, but there's no way all those bouquets are in there, otherwise there would be no more room for Will and Kate! I did a little research on the subject and here is the answer to my question. Seriously though, you really do have to admire William and Kate, particularly Kate in this case since she is so new at the whole 'being royal' thing, being able to meet literally hundreds of people every day and still speak with them, smile at them, talk with them and and shake every single hand they can reach and wave and look so completely happy doing it. The way the tackle their jobs, they make it look like there is nothing more fun to do in the whole world. I work with the public in a very direct fashion and have for the past nine years and yes, when I go out and give a tour what often comes up is that I make my job look easy. I smile and joke with people and I have to be in an exceptionally (usually hormone induced) crabby and irritable mood before I even think it shows. I am always reassured, however, when I find out that it has not shown. I must be developing a pretty good mask! Will and Kate are undoubtedly also seriously good at masking any moodiness they may feel regarding having to shake another couple hundred hands. But they still get major, major kudos to me for doing their job. A lot of people think that they have it easy, but trust me, they don't! I believe that I can safely say that a major portion of the general population would be begging for a nice, cushy office job after just one day of what William and Kate do, I often am begging for a quiet day in the office after having to give tours four out of five days in a week! To work with the public, you have to seriously, seriously love people and interacting with them and these two are major naturals at what they do, they're my heroes and from now on I will think of them when I get moody (which, as previously stated, is a very rare occurrence) about my job and I won't feel nearly as put out.

...speaking of nice, quiet days in the office, I had one today! I had the office all to myself for the first time in months and it was a nice feeling.

...pranced out of the office at the end of the day. One down, two and a half to go before my Sweetheart is home!!!

Today I...July 3rd

Today I...

...am sharing a few photos from my Grandma G's 80th birthday party with you all.

The party was a surprise that my aunt had been planning for six months now and it was a great success. She gathered up my grandma's only sister and two remaining brothers and their children and grandchildren and we all got together for a barbecue yesterday. My brother and I hardly knew anyone there though as out of the 30 of us there, 23 people had either never met us or had only ever seen us once when we were babies or not much more than that. It was very nice to get to meet so much of our family and I hope we can have another family gathering soon!

...went to visit V's cat for the second day in a row. I have been looking after her this weekend as V and her boyfriend are away. She is a very sweet 17 year-old cat and we both get along very well. I felt sad leaving her today though as she followed me all the way to the door and meowed as I left, but I needed to get back to my place in time to buy some canned food for my two felines before the store closed!

...was hoping to see P and A, but our schedules just weren't fitting today since she didn't want to come out my way and I was going to be out her way while she and A were napping. Oh well, maybe later this week.

...answered the e-mail that my Sweetheart sent me yesterday. I wanted to wait until today to answer so that I could send him pictures of my Grandma's birthday party! I can't for him to be home on Thursday, I feel like he's been gone for ages!

...am quite enjoying the lovely, warm weather :o)

Today I...July 1st

Today I...

...am celebrating Canada Day along with all Canadians. Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers, I think we can all agree that we could not be more fortunate to live in such an amazing country :o)